This invention relates to gaming machines. More specifically, it relates to spinning reel type slot machines.
Spinning reel slot machines have maintained their popularity, evolving from electro-mechanical devices to the present day devices which employ microprocessor control. In modern devices, the spinning reels are used merely as a display to advise a player if she has won or lost a game of chance played entirely in a computer memory according to the rules embedded in a computer program. Such machines may have further displays, in addition to the reels, on which other aspects of the game are displayed. In the past, such displays have included xe2x80x9ctrail gamesxe2x80x9d wherein an indicator proceeds along a board game style trail providing different features. These features might include nudges and additional gamble features awarding prizes.
Spinning reel slot machines generally provide different symbols on each of the reels, and give payoffs when a plurality of the symbols displayed in a certain position on each reel, are the same. The relevant position is usually along a horizontal line referred to as the payline. However, other payoff schemes have been developed. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,205,555 (Masahiro) discloses a machine with values on the reels, instead of symbols. A mathematical operation is performed on values displayed on the payline to determine the value of an award. This type of scheme has the disadvantage that it is not easily understood by regular players of the slot machines, who are used to a system of symbols and payoffs.
It has also become common practice to provide spinning reel slot machines with a secondary game which is activated only when certain special symbols appear in winning combinations. Frequently, the secondary game will be provided on a dot matrix screen disposed above the reels, and will be generated by a computer program. Often, during the course of the operation of the secondary game, a multiplier is established, by which the standard payoff for the winning combination is multiplied to provide the actual payoff. A game with such a feature is discussed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/998,139 also assigned to the present assignee. This type of game has the advantage that bigger jackpots can be provided when both a winning combination on the reels and a high multiplier on the feature occur, because such occurrences can be made to be very rare. It is important that this feature is simple to understand and exciting so that a player will choose the machine in question over other spinning reel slot machines.
It is also important that it is straightforward for a machine operator to adjust the payoff rate, and it is therefore advantageous in the payoff rate is related to the parameters used in the payoff tables in as simple a way as possible.
Spinning reel slot machines known in the art pay out wins at a set rate per second. This rate. is generally fairly slow to give the impression that a lot of credits are being paid out, and to increase the interest of other players in the machine. However, this slow payoff rate can be annoying to players who are well acquainted with the game and wish to resume play as soon as: possible. The present invention provides a player selectable payoff rate.
In a first aspect, the present invention is a spinning reel slot machine in which selected payoffs are multiplied by a variable value which is independent of the winning symbol combination whereby to increase player interest in the game.
By multiplying the payoff for selected wins by a variable value, the maximum possible payoff achievable is increased significantly, whereby increasing player interest. However, as only selected payoffs are multiplied by the variable value, the overall payoff is not increased significantly. Furthermore, as the variable multiplier is not dependent on the selected payoff, it is very straightforward to calculate and,modify the overall payoff of the machine.
The present invention provides a spinning reel slot machine which provides a secondary game when certain conditions are met in the combination of symbols displayed on the reels after a spin. The secondary game takes place on a display and involves the simulation of a set of reels on the display. The spinning of these reels is simulated and the combination of symbols which results from the simulated spin is used to generate a multiplier for a payoff obtained in the spin of the actual reels.
In a specific implementation of the invention, the symbols simulated on the reels are numerical values and the product of these values is used as the multiplier.
In an a adaptation of this implementation, if a multiplier value of 1 is obtained, the multiplier is increased to 2, so that a multiplier greater than 1 is always obtained.